Israel-Iran ceasefire: A fragile pause
Even though both Iran and Israel have confirmed it, the future of the ceasefire remains uncertain. Both Tel Aviv and Tehran would do well to consider the high costs of failing to contain the conflict. Iran, in particular, has suffered extensive losses — its air force and air defences have been severely damaged, oil depots burned, and key military leadership eliminated. Though Tehran refrained from closing the Strait of Hormuz, the global economy remains hostage to the stability of the region. With Gaza still under siege, a failure to de-escalate risks the conflict spilling into neighbouring countries like Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq, potentially fuelling a rise in militancy and extremism. A surge in displacement and refugee flows would deepen instability in a world strained by wars in Africa and Eastern Europe.
The case for peace could hardly be stronger. In the long term, Iran should prioritise transparency and diplomacy over clandestine activities with respect to its nuclear programme. In light of how easily its air defences were overwhelmed, the worst scenario is that Iran — like North Korea — may now conclude that the best way to protect itself is a nuclear deterrent. Israel, on its part, should resort to diplomacy, and not military adventurism, to have its security concerns addressed in any lasting way.
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Indian Express
19 minutes ago
- Indian Express
From Obama's ‘treason' to missing gold reserves, the wildest conspiracy theories consuming Trump's Washington
OK, so US President Donald Trump's name is in the Jeffrey Epstein files. But who put it there? Could it possibly have been Barack Obama from his prison cell? Or a tranquilized Hillary Clinton? Oh wait, maybe it was etched onto the documents by Joe Biden's magical autopen. Or is that mixing up different scandals? It's so hard to keep up with the latest wild notions circulating in the capital and beyond. Washington is awash in conspiracy theories these days, a cascade of suspicion and intrigue promoted or denied in the Oval Office, ricocheting around Capitol Hill and cable news and propelled at warp speed across social media. No commander in chief in his lifetime has been as consumed by conspiracy theories as Trump, and now they seem to be consuming him. They have been the rocket fuel for his political career since the days when he spread the lie that Obama was secretly born overseas and therefore not eligible to be president. More than a decade later, Trump is coming full circle by trying to divert attention from the Epstein conspiracy theory with a new-and-improved one about Obama supposedly committing treason. The harmonic convergence of competing conspiracies has overshadowed critical policy issues facing America's leaders at the moment, whether it's new tariffs that could dramatically reshape the global economy or the collapse of ceasefire talks meant to end the war in the Gaza Strip. The Epstein matter so spooked Speaker Mike Johnson that he abruptly recessed the House for the summer rather than confront it. The allegations lodged against Obama so outraged the former president that he emerged from political hibernation to express his indignation at even having to address them. The whispers and questions — 'this nonsense,' as Trump put it — followed the president all the way to Scotland, where he landed Friday for a visit to his golf club. 'You're making a very big thing over something that's not a big thing,' he complained to reporters, suggesting, in his latest bid at conspiracy deflection, that instead of him, the news media should be looking at Epstein's other boldface friends like former President Bill Clinton. 'Don't talk about Trump,' he said. Conspiracy theories have a long place in American history. Many Americans still believe that someone else had a hand in killing President John F. Kennedy, that the moon landings were faked, that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were an inside job or that the government is hiding proof of extraterrestrial visitors in Roswell, New Mexico. Sixty-five percent of Americans told Gallup pollsters in 2023 that they think there was a conspiracy behind Kennedy's assassination. Some conspiracy theories do turn out to be true, of course, or have some basis. But presidents generally have not been the ones spreading dubious stories. To the contrary, they traditionally have viewed their role as dispelling doubts and reinforcing faith in institutions. President Lyndon B. Johnson created the Warren Commission to investigate his predecessor's murder specifically to keep rumors and guesswork from proliferating. (Spoiler alert: It didn't.) Trump, by contrast, relishes conspiracy theories, particularly those that benefit him or smear his enemies without any evident care for whether they are true or not. 'There have been other conspiratorial political movements in the country's past,' said Geoff Dancy, a University of Toronto professor who teaches about conspiracy theories. 'But they have never occupied the upper echelons of power until the last decade.' Conspiracy theories are not the exclusive preserve of Trump and the political right. Around the time of last month's anniversary of the assassination attempt against Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, some on the left once again advanced the notion that the whole shooting episode had been staged to make the Republican candidate into a political martyr. Trump, however, has stirred the plot pot more than any other major political figure. In the six months since retaking office, he has remained remarkably cavalier about suggesting nefarious schemes even as he heads the government supposedly orchestrating some of them. He suggested the nation's gold reserves at Fort Knox might be missing, resurrecting a decades-old fringe supposition, even though he would presumably be in position to know whether that was actually true, what with being president and all. 'If the gold isn't there, we're going to be very upset,' he told reporters. It fell to Scott Bessent, the decidedly nonconspiratorial Treasury secretary, to burst the bubble and reassure Americans that, no, the nation's reserves had not been stolen. 'All the gold is present and accounted for,' he told an interviewer. Trump has played to long-standing suspicions by ordering the release of hundreds of thousands of pages of documents related to the assassinations of Kennedy, his brother Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., an act of transparency for historians and researchers that may shed important light on those episodes. But Trump has gone beyond simple theory floating to make his own alternate reality official government policy. Some applicants for jobs in the second Trump administration were asked whether Trump won the 2020 election that he actually lost; those who gave the wrong answer were not helping their job prospects, forcing those rooted in facts to decide whether to swallow the fabrication to gain employment. Trump has likewise claimed that Biden was so diminished toward the end of his term that his aides signed pardons without his knowledge using an autopen. Biden was certainly showing signs of age, but the autopen story was conjecture. Asked if he had uncovered proof, Trump said, 'I uncovered, you know, the human mind. I was in a debate with the human mind and I didn't think he knew what the hell he was doing.' The past week or so has seen a fusillade of Trumpian conspiracy theories, seemingly meant to focus attention away from the Epstein case. Tulsi Gabbard, the president's politically appointed intelligence chief, trotted out inflammatory allegations that Obama orchestrated a 'yearslong coup and treasonous conspiracy' by skewing the 2016 election interference investigation — despite the conclusions of a Republican-led Senate report signed by none other than Marco Rubio, now Trump's secretary of state. She also claimed that Hillary Clinton was 'on a daily regimen of heavy tranquilizers' during the 2016 campaign. Relying on this, Trump accused Obama of 'treason,' suggesting he should be locked up and going so far as to post a fake video showing his predecessor being handcuffed in the Oval Office and put behind bars. The idea of a president posting such an image of another president would once have been seen as a shocking breach of etiquette and corruption of the justice system, but in the Trump era it has become simply business as usual. For all that, the conspiracy theorist in chief has not been able to shake the Epstein case, which reflects the rise of the QAnon movement that believes America is run by a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles. Most of the files, the ones that his attorney general told him include his name, remain unreleased, bringing together an unlikely alliance of MAGA conservatives and liberal Democrats. It was well known that Trump was friends with Epstein, although they later fell out. So it's not clear what his name being in the files might actually mean. But Trump is not one to back down. Asked last week about whether he had been told his name was in the files, Trump again pointed the finger of conspiracy elsewhere. 'These files were made up by Comey,' he told reporters, referring to James Comey, the FBI director he had fired more than two years before Epstein died in prison in 2019. 'They were made up by Obama,' he went on. 'They were made up by the Biden administration.' The theories are endless.
Economic Times
22 minutes ago
- Economic Times
US tariff deadline of August 1 is firm, no extensions: Commerce secretary
The United States will implement tariffs on August 1. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick confirmed no extensions will be granted. Customs will collect the money from the mentioned date. This decision sends a message to trading partners. They must meet commitments to strike trade deals with the Trump administration. Earlier, President Trump had mentioned the deadline could be extended or not. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Rising tariff floor: Trump sets 15% as the starting point Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads The United States will not offer any extensions to its August 1 tariff deadline , Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick confirmed on Sunday, according to AFP. This rules out any possibility of a second extension from the initial July 9 deadline set by President Trump.'So no extensions, no more grace periods. August 1, the tariffs are set. They'll go into place. Customs will start collecting the money, and off we go,' Lutnick told Fox News announcement sends a firm and final message to US trading partners: the deadline is real, and time-bound commitments must now be met. This is particularly relevant for countries, including India, still hoping to strike trade agreements with the Trump administration ahead of the so-called "reciprocal tariff" Donald Trump had earlier left the door open to a possible delay, saying the deadline 'could or could not' be extended. But Lutnick's remarks eliminate that uncertainty, cementing August 1 as the date when the new tariff regime will officially come into days before the deadline, the two-time Republican President indicated that the baseline tariff rate would be no lower than 15%, up from the 10% figure initially floated in at an AI summit in Washington on July 24, he said, 'We'll have a straight, simple tariff of anywhere between 15% and 50%. We have 50 because we haven't been getting along with those countries too well.'Earlier this month, Trump said that letters were being sent to more than 150 countries, informing them of the tariff hike. 'Probably 10 or 15%, we haven't decided yet,' he said at the time. But with the president now confirming a 15% floor and a possible ceiling of 50%, the scope of these levies appears to be Secretary Lutnick added further clarity during a separate interview with CBS News, stating that smaller nations—particularly in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa—would face a baseline tariff of 10%, slightly lower than the new floor, but still significant compared to pre-April norms.
News18
29 minutes ago
- News18
"Losing Patience" Rubio Warns Trump "Frustrated" With Putin, Says Russia 'Prolonging Ukraine War'
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said President Trump is 'losing patience' with Russia's lack of progress on a Ukraine peace deal and may impose 100% tariffs if no agreement is reached within 50 days. Despite calls with Putin, no results have emerged. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer plans talks with Trump in Scotland. Meanwhile, Ukraine destroyed a Russian Su-27UB jet, killed a top commander, and disrupted Volgograd infrastructure as Russia deployed new R-77M missiles and claimed fresh territorial gains. 00:00 - INTRODUCTION02:54 - RUSSIAN SU-27UB JET DESTROYED, UKRAINE RELEASES VIDEOn18oc_world n18oc_crux
